Cook County Board Meeting Feb. 15, 2011

Ethics Amendment Referred to Committee

The meeting was called to order by President Preckwinkle at 10:00 am.

An amendment to the Ethics Ordinance was introduced by Commissioner Earlean Collins. Co-sponsors were Commissioners John Fritchey, Bridget Gainer, Peter Silvestri, Larry Suffredin, and Jeff Tobolski. The amendment stated that no official or employee shall participate in making any county governmental decision with respect to matters in which the official or employee or his or her spouse, dependent, or domestic partner has a stake. Any official or employee who has a conflict of interest must advise her supervisor of the conflict potential in writing addressed to the Cook County Board as soon as the employee is aware of the potential conflict. If an employee or official has an economic interest conflict in regard to property the County might purchase, they are notify the Cook County  Board of Commissioners as soon as they are aware of the conflict. There was also a section of the amendment that addressed the hiring of relatives.

Commissionor Collins stated that the amendment would be an economic advantage to the County because it would be helpful in ruling out conflict of interest and violations of the law.
 
Much of the discussion centered on the lack of information that commissioners received regarding the amendment. They expressed that they did not feel confident in amending the Ordinance because of a lack of understanding.  The amendment was referred to committee for study and presentation at a later date.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:45

--Submitted by Velda Erie

More Cook County Budget Hearings

Bureau of Technology - Feb. 3 Hearing

Greg Wass, the newly appointed Chief of Technology, provided a handout to the Commissioners and reviewed his vision for changes needed to streamline the organizational structure of technology within the county. At the present time 20% of IT spending is within the Bureau. He stated that while there may be enough money allocated for IT it is not well managed since central oversight for spending or coordination of IT services is lacking. Purchase of the county's main frame computer from IBM (for $400,000) was listed as one of his initiatives with the long term goal of getting off the main frame. He would like 2011 to be focused on the planning phase for IT across the county with execution of their plan following in 2012 and beyond.

Commissioners raised concerns about the amount of money that they have approved for technology over the years. Contractual issues of changing vendors were raised. A big concern was expressed by several commissioners about cell phone use - who gets cell phones paid for by the county and who pays the bills for those phones. Department Heads make the determination of who gets phones and who pays for them but there does not seem to be a consistent policy. Some phones are paid for from a central account but Comm. Gainer questioned why cell phone bills were not allocated to the departments. Sharing of IT systems and having separate IT systems in different departments that don't communicate were also raised as issues as they are every year. Comm. Daley stated that they may need an ordinance that would require the elected officials to participate in whatever system changes are made. He further stated that savings can only come from the cooperation among all elected officials and departments.

Public Administrator - Feb. 3 Hearing

Nicholas Crapsas serves as the Public Administrator for Cook County. He is appointed by the state to provide services to those persons who die in Illinois without a will or have no one to administer their estate. His $56,000 part time salary is paid by the state and his office has a budget request for $1.172m. Revenue generated by this office was $4.2m this past year. This hearing was brief with few questions asked. Comm. Gainer did ask how the law firms were chosen with which the office contracts for services and Mr. Crapsas stated that a request for qualifications had been issued and the office selects from those firms that have met the qualifications.

Auditor - Feb. 3 Hearing

Laura Burman is the head of the Internal Audit Dept. of Cook County. She stated she has complied with the requested budget cuts but instead of doing lay offs she will use furlough days (19 for each FTE) in her department. She stated that future audits will focus on revenue generating departments and they are doing a more risk based approach in their audits. Comm. Gainer stated that making cuts in this department could reduce their ability to catch problems. This also was a brief hearing with few questions asked.

States Attorney - Feb. 8 Hearing

Anita Alvarez came into the hearing after holding a press conference in the hall outside the President's office. In her prepared statements she discussed what a difficult year 2010 had been for law enforcement citing the challenges presented by increased gun violence. She stated that she had negotiated with President Preckwinkle about the cuts to her budget and if she made the requested 10% cuts she would have to cut 58 states attorney positions and 100 support staff and such cuts would greatly impact the services her office would be able to provide.

In discussion with the commissioners it was revealed that the President had requested the 16% cut and the States Attorney had submitted a budget with a 5.5% cut. Further discussion between the President and SA had resulted in a compromise cut of about 10% but there still seemed to be some unresolved issues. Comm. Suffredin asked about whether she was able to use any Special Purpose Funds that were collected by the courts and she said that those belonged to the Chief Judge and her office did not share in any of those funds. She stated that she needs to be fully staffed on the criminal side which is not where her office can generate income. Thus if cuts are made to her civil case staffing her ability to generate increased revenue will be compromised. Comm. Beavers asked his usual question about minority representation on the staff in her office. Ms. Alvarez was prepared for the question and provided the following statistics: her professional staff is 9.62% African American, 7.24% Hispanic, and 4% Asian with 43% of the staff being women. Observer left before the hearing was over.

Cook County Budget Hearings--February 15, 2011

Four county departments presented their budgets today--Cook County Clerk, Human Resources, Public Defender, Treasurer. All county departments were originally asked to cut 16% from last year's budget.

County Clerk--David Orr presented an 18% cut due to a "strategic plan of technology improvements, cross training, and not filling vacancies." Also mentioned were efficiencies in the vital records area and an increase in marriage and civil union licenses which are/will become money-makers for the department. One commissioner questioned why the entire administration in this office is grade 24 (highest level and pay grade) and it was mentioned that there is a large disparity in grade 24 salaries throughout county departments.

With regard to elections, early voting and absentee voting increases should lessen crowding in voting precincts. Orr mentioned that his office would like to take over the jobs of local electoral boards--and do so more efficiently--since petition challenges are now often inconsistently and capriciously decided.

Human Resources--Jonathan Rothstein stated there will be a slight reduction in staff (14) in this department. Comm. Daley asked about furlough days, pay freeze, unpaid holidays, unpaid lunch for county employees as part of cost-saving measures. Meetings are being held this week with union leaders and Rothstein will update the board as negotiation talks proceed. Commissioners expressed concern over Shakman compliance and the large numbers of employees out on disability and family leave. The TOLEO computer system for automated job applications and a new compliance position along with a better hiring plan will bring Human Resources into "substantial compliance with Shakman" by mid-year. A desk audit is being done and the risk management department will work on better methods for getting employees out on disability back to work in a timely manner.

Public Defender--Judge Abashi Cunningham referred to on-going discussions with President Preckwinkle regarding budget cuts in his department. The President wants a 10% decrease and Cunningham would only go as far as 6.1%. He was unclear as to where this was going. Cunningham was also not clear on how these cuts would effect the public defender's office--but presumably by cases taking longer to process and try in the courts. Some Commissioners are concerned about the large number ( and cost--over $4.2 million per year) of outside attorneys hired for cases where there is a perceived conflict of interest--such as parent and child opposing on a case. Cunningham blamed the judges in these cases, as they have the discretion to require outside attorneys. He indicated this would need to be changed by state law.

Grants are not sought by this department, as there is no one in the office who can write grant applications. At any rate, most grants go for law enforcement and not for defense of indigents.

Treasurer--Maria Pappas presented a very professional and thorough report of the Treasurer's office. She decreased her budget by 33% from 2010. This was done through increased revenues, reductions in staff (6), a scavenger sale, and especially increased efficiencies through technology use. Satellite offices have been closed, e-mails can now answer most taxpayer questions, mortgage companies are able to pay property taxes on-line and there are "stops" incorporated to prevent taxpayers from over-paying or double-paying. This office is modeling technology for other departments in the county and throughout the country. A job/desk audit will be done this year to more effectively describe duties and requirements of jobs in this department. This is an issue common throughout the county, as many jobs are incorrectly listed and described.

Pappas has also begun an on-line site showing all 2,000 local governments' pension obligations. She cannot force governments to do this, but counts on taxpayers to pressure their local government entities to provide this information. A new special purpose fund has been added to the Treasurer's office. The 534 fund uses fees to pay employee pensions in this department.

Much of this presentation was rather contentious--especially between Comm. Fritchey and Pappas. Questions about the high salaries of Pappas' grade 24 employees (30% higher than other elected officials'), and a recent news item about high cleaning person and bodyguard/driver salaries caused an uncomfortable silence in the room.

Finance Committee Budget Hearings – Feb. 10, 2011

Exploring ways to reduce the number of layoffs.

The first public hearing on the proposed budget where members of the public could testify was held the evening before at the Maybrook Court House in Maywood. Employees who are union members turned out in force to protest the layoffs called for in this proposed budget. Commissioners were clearly affected by what they heard the prior evening. Finance Committee Chairman Daley brought Jonathan Rothstein, interim director of Human Relations, to this budget review meeting to update Commissioners on talks with unions about the possibility of unions accepting furloughs or other ideas to reduce the number of layoffs necessary. Mr. Rothstein indicated that no firm proposal had been put on the table, but when the subject had been brought up with at least some of the unions, it was indicated that this was not worth pursuing. However, Chairman Daley urged both Mr. Rothstein and the President's office and the unions to talk again to explore any and all ideas, including pay freezes and unpaid holidays. Commissioner Reyes stated that he was going to introduce an amendment to the budget that would reduce the salaries of department heads by 10% in order to free up money to reduce the number of layoffs.

Bureau of Administration

This Bureau is composed of a great variety of departments, the largest being the Highway Department, but also including the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (which works on projects that often cut across departmental lines), the Department of Environmental Control, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Medical Examiner (i.e., the county coroner), the Office of Adoption and Child Custody Advocacy, the Veteran's Assistance Commission, the Animal Control Department, and the Cook County Law Library.

The majority of the questioning was directed to the budget of the Highway Department which calls for a net decrease of 74 FTEs, many of them union positions. An additional 36 positions were saved by transferring their costs to the Special Purpose Fund MFT Illinois First, which gets money from the State for the design, construction, maintenance, and operation of highways. In response to Commissioner questions, the Superintendent of the Department confirmed that he had conferred with the Illinois Dept. of Transportation to make sure the employees transferred qualified under this Special Purpose Fund.

As the Commissioners had done with the Facilities Department earlier in the week, several Commissioners pressed the Superintendent as to whether there were sufficient positions in the budget to be able to do the necessary work of the department, particularly during times like the recent blizzard. He said that there were, but also said that the department would be at a bare bone level, and he would prefer to have a cushion of 2 or 3 more positions in most of the areas. The Superintendent also said they were looking at how they can improve operations by working across the 5 districts of the department. Commissioner Gainer pressed the superintendent to look at closing down District 3 during the non-winter months (and moving the employees to the other districts) since it sounded like it might only need to be open for the purpose of salting. Several Commissioners brought up the idea of whether employees who were losing positions and were close to retirement could "buy out" in order to bridge their service and benefits.

There was also concern about the staffing of the Medical Examiner's area, and Dr. Jones said that she does not see how she can live with only the $60,000 budgeted for overtime. She also mentioned that several maintenance projects in her department were on hold because of the pending layoffs in the Facilities Department.

The one department that is adding people is Environmental Control, which is adding 2 inspectors and 1 administrative assistant. On average, each inspector brings in about 3 – 4 times his/her salary due to fines levied for violations. In the budget, about $300,000 more in revenues are projected as a result of the proposed addition of inspectors.

-- submitted by Priscilla Mims